Gastrointestinal illness associated with Kobuta & Ookami Katsu & Sake in Redmond

Summary, updated May 13, 2025

Public Health investigated an outbreak of gastrointestinal (stomach) illness associated with Kobuta & Ookami Katsu & Sake in Redmond. We did not find a specific food or drink item that might have made people sick.

This outbreak appears to be over, and our investigation is complete.

Illnesses

Two people reported feeling sick after eating at Kobuta & Ookami Katsu & Sake in Redmond on December 22, 2024. They had symptoms like feeling sick (nausea), vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and chills, possibly from a bacterial infection, but the cause was unclear.

No restaurant workers were found to be sick.

Public Health actions

We visited the restaurant on January 10, 2025, and found several food safety issues that could lead to cross-contamination of foods and the spread of disease, including:

• Workers not washing their hands properly and reusing gloves when handling different foods.
• Raw foods being handled in ways that could contaminate ready-to-eat foods.
• Improper food storage, increasing the risk of cross contamination between different types of raw meat.

The restaurant also didn’t keep an illness log for workers. While they don’t allow sick workers to work, we advised that workers must wait at least 24 hours after symptoms stop before returning to work.

We provided guidance and resources to help fix these issues, including instructions for management to ask about workers’ symptoms before allowing them back to work.

On January 24, 2025, we returned and confirmed that the restaurant had corrected the food safety problems.